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Thursday, July 2, 2015

The nineteen faces in the room showed a mixture of excitement and
apprehension. Many of these young people were about to do something for
the very first time: operate a video camera. “This is a totally new
experience for me, I’ve never held a video camera before!” 21-year-old
Saron told me eagerly.

It was the first day of the One Minutes Jr. workshop organized by
UNICEF in Kampot, southern Cambodia and I was there to capture stories
from this special event. Over the following week these young people
would learn how to tell their stories by producing a storyboard,
directing a film and capturing all the action on camera.

One Minutes Jr. is a film-making workshop, but it is about a lot more
than making films. The participants here were all students from UNICEF
Cambodia’s partner Epic Arts, an inclusive arts organization supporting
children and young people with disabilities. They received guidance
throughout from expert trainers from the One Minutes Foundation. The
workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to learn new
skills, support each other as members of a team and to tell a powerful
story about something important in their lives.

Every student wrote, directed and filmed their own short movie, each
exactly one minute long. These films will now be available for viewing
across Cambodia – and the world – giving a voice to young people with
disabilities.

People with disabilities are often among the poorest and most
socially excluded in Cambodia. Access to education is often a struggle –
only 56 per cent of adults with disabilities can read and write,
compared to 80 per cent of the total population. Health care providers
often have inadequate skills to support people with disabilities and
care can be extremely expensive. Families affected by disability in
Cambodia are twice as likely to suffer extreme poverty due to health
care costs.

A person does not have a disability because they find it difficult to
see, walk or hear. Disability occurs when physical, social and legal
barriers prevent someone with impairments from taking part in community
life on an equal basis. Watch the powerful and poignant films created by
the young people during One Minutes Jr. and you will be left in no
doubt about the extraordinary array of talent on show. UNICEF hopes that
these films will challenge the viewer to see ability, not disability.

“Children and families living with disability have equal rights and
equal potential to participate in all aspects of daily life,” says Tomas
Jensen, Chief of Local Governance for Child Rights at UNICEF Cambodia,
who has led the organization of this initiative. “This workshop has
provided an opportunity for young people with disabilities to
demonstrate that they are fully up to the task of being included and
contributing as active citizens to the socio-economic development of
Cambodia.”

UNICEF promotes and protect the rights of children and adults with
disabilities in Cambodia and is developing the capacity of local
decision makers to make governance and community development
disability-inclusive. UNICEF also supports disability-focused NGOs, like
Epic Arts, to provide services for people with disabilities.

On the final day of the workshop, every young person’s film was shown
on the big screen during a special event at the Epic Arts centre. It
was a nerve-wracking yet exciting moment for the young film makers.
22-year-old Sokna, who is deaf, created a film showing that making
connections with people is not just about talking.

“I was very scared to see my film on the screen. But when I watched
it I had shivers and was very happy. Such a big audience got to see my
film!” Sokna communicates using Cambodian Sign Language (CSL), but the
vast majority of the 51,000 deaf people in Cambodia have never had the
opportunity to learn CSL. An estimated 98 per cent of deaf people are
without sign, written or spoken language.

It is clear that there is a long way to go before every child born in
Cambodia has a fair start in life. However initiatives like One Minutes
Jr. are empowering young people with disabilities to be heard and to
show their capabilities – a vital step on the road to ensuring that
every person in Cambodia is valued and supported to reach their full
potential.

About Me

I am full-time Mass Communication faculty at Towson University in Maryland and adjunct faculty in the City University of New York (CUNY) Master's in Disability Studies program.
I research media and disability issues and wrote a 2010 book on the subject: Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media, published by Advocado Press.
The media have real power to define what the public knows about disability and that's what I research.